I am very surprised? I would expect all priests in all places to always be blessing things. It is not difficult and just requires a prayer blessing the object for its use. Cars are blessed, homes are blessed, anything appropriate can and should be blessed.

i agree with father peter.maybe he thinks u want to consecrate it like the icons in the church? that's different than blessing things.ask him if he blesses cars and houses (nearly everyone does) and take it from there.

I am very surprised? I would expect all priests in all places to always be blessing things. It is not difficult and just requires a prayer blessing the object for its use. Cars are blessed, homes are blessed, anything appropriate can and should be blessed.

When I was given an icon as a gift at my baptism I asked my priest to bless it since that's what I was used to, and he told me that we don't to that. He said that only the icons in the Church are blessed, and only by a bishop, not by a priest... Obviously that would be consecrated the way most people talk about it, but there doesn't seem to be a concept of a lesser blessing for personal use like other traditions have. It seemed strange to me, but as far as I'm concerned if an icon is made properly, and used properly, it's still holy even if a priest hasn't prayed over it... I really do like the EO tradition of placing it on the altar more, but oh well.

I have heard of some people having a bishop come to their house and consecrate their home icons with myroun. Our main icons are a gift from a priest who used to be EO that he used in his home for years, so the best of bost worlds.

The Coptic Church doesn't even seem to have a service for blessing a house. My priest composed one, and a neighbouring bishop adopted it. I wonder what the historical practice was in this regard?

There is a Coptic house blessing service. It is in one of the service books.

In my own use we modify it, but there is certainly a Coptic service for it.

I am 100% sure that the Coptic tradition has the blessing of objects. It seems inconceivable that it should not. It would need some research of course. I think there seems to be a confusion over blessing and consecrating and a hesitation to do anything that looks like consecration.

That's interesting. What is the order of the service like? It seems strange that a new one was composed if there is one...

When my priest blessed our house in university, he just said the prayer of thanksgiving, then said "In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. Blessed be God the Father...", signed the water, blew on it, and then hand to us to sprinkle around the house later. It took less than a minute. My Catholic room mates asked if the house was really blessed now. They were expecting something a bit longer after seeing our Liturgy... Later, when he blessed my house after I was married, he used the 10 min service he composed.